Saturday, August 4, 2012

Simple Envelope Cushion Cover Tutorial

I've done quite a number of cushion covers so far, mostly with zippers, whether they were the normal concealed ones, or invisible ones.  For many of those projects, I found lots of good tutorials online and they really helped me, a beginner with zippers, to learn how to sew those intimidating things.

I always considered myself a beginner sewer, so it never occurred to me to put up my own tutorials.  However, after a friend's comment that she didn't know how to sew cushion covers, I decided to put up a really simple one which only requires the fabric -- no zippers, no studs, no buttons.  So here it goes:

Note: White colour is the wrong side of the fabric, and blue is the correct side of the fabric.

Step 1: Measuring
Measure your cushion cover.  I have a square cushion cover of about 40cm by 40cm, so my length = 40cm (I've left diagrams labelled as "length" so that you can plug in any number you want). Leave about 1 inch of seam allowance all around.


Step 2: Hemming short edges
Now we need to hem in side A and side B (the short edges of the cloth).  Each fold is about 1/2inch.  Do the same for both sides.


Step 3: Folding and sewing with RIGHT sides facing out
After hemming side A and side B, lay the cloth out in the same orientation as in step 1 and fold as follows:


After sewing on the red lines (about 1/2 inch away from the raw edge), use a scissors and cut off some of the cloth at those edges about 1/2cm to 1cm away from the sewing line.  Once that's done, turn the almost done cushion cover inside out.  Make sure to poke out the corners nicely.  It would help to give it a good ironing at this stage.

Step 4: Last sewing step
Now, just 2 more lines of sewing and we'll be done:


turn it the right way out, stuff in your cushion, and we're done!!

Here's how mine looks like:
envelope side of cushion cover
front of cushion cover

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tute! Very useful :-) A bit confused for the last step. Do you sew when you've turned it right side out? :-p

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  2. For the last step, you have to sew it when the wrong side is facing out. After you do this, there will be no raw edges visible. I believe this is called a french seam. Hope this clarifies =)

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